Pat Robertson says he just wants to defend the Jews. So why are so many Jews appalled, not appreciative?
The apparent lack of gratitude was evident recently when the televangelist, former GOP presidential candidate and promoter of “age-defying protein pancakes” lashed out at some Jewish activists who dared criticize his sweeping condemnations of Islam as a religion that was “violent at its core.”
The Christian Coalition and Christian Broadcasting Network founder even managed to offend longtime pal President Bush, who recently said that “some of the comments that have been uttered about Islam do not reflect the sentiments of my government or the sentiments of most Americans.”
Robertson seems baffled and irked that Jews aren’t marching to the front ranks in his anti-Islam campaign.
The Jews, after all, have longer, more brutal experience with Islamic extremism because of the terrorists who have attacked Israel and diaspora Jewry for years, and they are the favorite target of the mullahs who incite violence every Friday at mosques throughout the Middle East.
Jews were among the first to raise alarms about radical Islam; some of the Bush administration’s leading advocates of a tougher stance toward Islamic countries and clerics supporting the radicals, are Jewish.
But much to Robertson’s consternation, most Jewish groups have reacted with revulsion to his verbal crusade against an entire religion — so much so that Robertson recently lashed back, questioning the leadership credentials of an official of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism for calling his comments “shrill and bigoted.”
The RAC wasn’t alone.
American Jewish Committee Director David Harris said, “The Rev. Robertson’s wholesale denigration of an entire faith, by calling Muslims ‘worse than Nazis,’ is outrageous.”
No major Jewish group issued a statement supporting the political preacher.
American Jews understand the problem of radical Islam, and many undoubtedly believe that the Islamic world has taken a dangerous turn in recent years. But most forcefully reject appeals to blanket religious intolerance, for the obvious reason that intolerance against one religious minority feeds the mindset that leads to intolerance against others.
Every religion has its extremists, Jews understand. That’s a special problem in Islam today, and the tide of extremism should be resisted. But it has also been a problem in Christianity, which has bred innumerable bigoted offshoots, not to mention prominent clerics like Robertson who feel perfectly comfortable trashing the religious beliefs of millions of others.
Nor is the Jewish community immune: The tiny band of extremists who worship the mass-killer Baruch Goldstein is an example.
Every body of Scripture — the Jewish and Christian Bibles, the Koran — includes verses that can be taken out of context or interpreted to say truly horrible things.
True, mainstream Christian and Jewish leaders today speak out against extremists in their midst, while Islamic leaders have generally remained silent about or condoned their radicals. Still, to use that to argue that Islam is “violent at its core” just fans the fires of religious strife.
Many Jews also see Robertson’s stunning hypocrisy.
In his warning to Jews, he said the Koran demands that “the end of the world will not come until every Jew on earth is killed by the Muslims.” Robertson asserted, “I am opposed to any religious or political belief that has at its core the humiliation or annihilation of the Jewish people.”
Come again? Isn’t Robertson part of an evangelical community that believes the longed-for return of Jesus will be preceded by a new Holocaust that will wipe out all but a small remnant of Jews, who will then convert to Christianity?
If what he’s really saying is that wiping out Jews in the name of Muhammad is bad, but wiping them out or converting them in the name of Jesus is necessary for the redemption of the world, then it’s hardly surprising that Jews are buying none of his anti-Islam fervor.
On a recent television news show, Robertson explained himself. He complained that the prophet Muhammad was a “warrior,” not a peacemaker, and he spoke angrily about vicious Muslim massacres.
But those were centuries ago — about the same time Christians were using the Bible to justify genocide against Jews and Muslims. Apparently Robertson never heard of the Crusades or the Inquisition.
The comparison is not exact; Christianity rejected that kind of violence centuries ago, while a growing body of Islam seems to embrace it today. Still, by implying that Christianity has a perfect past while Islam is still living out a violent history, Robertson encourages suspicions that religious bigotry, not concern about Jews, is driving his campaign.
Robertson isn’t interested in building bridges to Islamic moderates and helping them fight the tide of extremism. He is interested in provoking a U.S. war against Islam. Is it any wonder that Jews, by and large, cringe when he spouts intolerance in their name?